


The Final Battle

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 10:37:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12479640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: The final battle between Garnok and Aideen takes place between their reincarnations. Ronja belongs to ankle-ghostwright on tumblr and Dunya belongs to Zebrablanket.





	The Final Battle

Ronja awoke in an inn somewhere in Jorvik in the middle of the night, feeling like her heart was about to burst out of her chest. She frowned and got out of bed, resisting the urge to strip out of her sleeping clothes until she reached the shower. Somebody might break into her room, might already be in her room, perhaps that was what had awoken her. But, once she got to the bathroom, closed the door behind her, and switched on the light, she saw nothing hiding in the overly-white bathroom. So she could relax as she dropped her sodden clothes onto the floor and stepped into a cold shower to wash away the sweat and fear. But why was she so afraid? Ronja frowned down at the water trickling past her toes.

This was not the first time that Ronja had awoken with this fear, either. If there were nightmares, she could not remember them. All Ronja knew was that, for the past few weeks, she'd woken to a feeling that someone or something was following her. Coming for her. Usually, going out for a wild ride on Nightwish helped her with this. But this time, Ronja was quite fed up with this nonsense. It was far too late to be awake, and it wasn't good for her, and she had a lot of things to do during the day so she couldn't be falling asleep during her stable chores.

After drying herself off and getting changed into riding clothes, Ronja grabbed two apples and chewed on one while Nightwish chewed on the other one, tilting his ears towards her as if to inquire what was wrong.

"I know you can talk," said Ronja around a mouthful of apple. She could've talked to him with her mind, but screw it. Besides, her fear might make him all spooky.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice in her head somehow soothing her fears. It was enough so that she could pick up his bridle without her hands shaking, anyway.

"Y'know how I'm tired sometimes?" said Ronja, waiting until he'd swallowed the last of the apple before she put the bit in his mouth.

"Yes," said Nightwish. "It worries me."

"Yeah, it worries me too," said Ronja, fixing the bridle up and then picking up the saddle pad. This was the easy part, honestly. The saddle would require a lot more fiddling. "I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes. It's like I've had a nightmare but I don't remember it."

"Maybe it's so bad that you don't want to remember it," said Nightwish.

"Maybe," said Ronja. She shut up while she put the saddle on, tightening the girth and making sure that the stirrups were the right length. Then, she finally hauled herself up into the saddle, and felt that sense of rightness wash through her. She always felt like this when she was mounted atop her beautiful steed. Her Soul Steed, the druids called him, and maybe he was.

"Do you have any particular destination in mind tonight?" asked Nightwish.

"Yeah, actually," said Ronja. "The druids might know why I've been waking up feeling all spooked. Or if they don't, Fripp might."

"If nobody else will tell you, we have Evergray," said Nightwish. Ronja grinned.

"Heck yeah we do, but we'll see Fripp first," said Ronja. "Let's get goin!" They leaped into action, Nightwish's hooves eating up the terrain as the two of them made their way across Jorvik beneath the stars, nobody else out but them.

In a bedroom on Dark Core's oil rig, another girl woke up, this one with eyes as red as blood that glowed faintly like fire. She had no clothes to take off, but she did pull herself out from under her girlfriend's arm to put clothes on. Alessa stirred, mumbling something in her sleep, but Dunya bent down and kissed her forehead, brushing some of her girlfriend's red hair away from her face.

"Sleep," said Dunya. "I'll be back soon." For, unlike the very confused Ronja, Dunya knew exactly what was going on. This had been building up for centuries, and now, when Dunya was finally at her full power, it was time to finish this battle, once and for all.

Dunya left the oil rig silently, the Dark Portal blazing a bright red and crackling with electricity as she rode Copperclash through it. It made her already-spiky hair stand on end, and a shiver of excitement passed through her as she stepped from the real world into Pandoria.

In his home with its ceiling made of stars, Fripp woke up, gasping. He sat up before he leaped out of bed and scampered over to the stand. The Codex! It was still here. Good. That was very good. Fripp stood on the pages as he scanned the text, then moved down so that he could flip through the pages.

"No!" Fripp muttered. "It is too soon! She is not ready!"

"Fripp!" Elizabeth cried, running into the room, but just at that moment, the teal portal leading from the Secret Stone Circle to Fripp's home rippled with power, and a girl appeared in the room. Her black hair was windswept and looked a right mess, still damp at the ends.

"Fripp, good to see you're awake," said the girl, who Fripp finally remembered was Ronja. The chosen one. The... but no! It was happening too fast! How long had he been asleep? "I'm not supposed to be awake, but I am."

"Insomnia is a pretty bad condition," said Elizabeth.

"That's not the problem," said Ronja. "I've been waking up with this fear, but I don't remember any nightmares."

"Ah," said Fripp. "Tell me, Ronja, have your powers grown any since last time we spoke?"

"I dunno," said Ronja. "I feel all jittery but that's kinda normal for me."

"Hmm," Fripp hummed thoughtfully, and hopped down from the book stand only to reappear on Ronja's shoulder. There, he trembled as though a surge of electricity had just passed through him. "It is as I feared. Your power is strong. And you have had no training?"

"The last thing I did was haul ass out of Pandoria," said Ronja. "Actually, no, it was that spooky-ass race with the fae girl."

"The Soul Riders found it necessary to use the Code of Pandoria to incite a duel," said Elizabeth. Fripp groaned, tugging on his ears in frustration.

"Well, I don't know why, but she is ready for the final battle now," said Fripp. "Garnok is already at full power again, and will turn Jorvik into a Pandoric wasteland if we do not send our heroes to best her."

"Her?" Elizabeth repeated.

"Dunya Salter, do try to keep up, Elizabeth," said Fripp. "But the prophecy states that the final battle will take place between Aideen and Garnok. Just as the first one did. Only this time, Aideen will not have the aid of her Soul Riders backing her up, nor will Garnok have his Generals."

"Okay," said Ronja, frowning. "Does that mean that I have to fight Dunya?" She hadn't met the girl that Fripp was talking about, though she had heard about her.

"I am afraid so," said Fripp, nodding. "Do you have your rune wand?"

"Yep," said Ronja, taking it out of the sleeve of her tunic.

"Good," said Fripp. "You will need it." He scampered back down to the ground and looked up at Ronja. "I would say Aideen guide you, but, well... I think she will." And, with a strange laugh, Fripp spread his little paws wide and the air between them first glowed brightly with runes and then began to swirl. Ronja stepped into the portal, and the world went pink.

Fortunately, moments later, Nightwish appeared beside Ronja, and she mounted him, her hands trembling slightly. Here, the feeling of fear grew stronger, but there was a new feeling, too. A feeling of power. That there was something inside of her, something that looked at the girl sitting astride her own horse across from Ronja. The smile that graced Ronja's lips was not her own.

"Hello, Aideen," said the dark-haired girl. "You look different. But then again, so do I." Ronja wanted to ask what was happening. But instead, what came out was:

"Enough chatter, Garnok. It has been centuries, I know, and we should catch up. But let's do that after I've gotten you safely imprisoned within the earth's core." Dunya snorted.

"Big talk for someone who couldn't even keep me in my last prison," said Dunya. "You didn't think I'd use your tricks, did you?" Ronja-deen laughed.

"But surely you remember our last battle? I lost my physical form and powers. Now you'll see how it feels." And suddenly, the voice was gone, and Ronja was left alone, staring at the raven-haired girl. They could almost be sisters. Twins.

But then Dunya lit a fireball in her palm, and Ronja cried out as Nightwish whinnied and dodged it. She couldn't reason with this girl, she had to fight her. But that was okay. Ronja had fought before.

Ronja rode Nightwish a safe distance away and dismounted. He looked at her in concern, trying to follow her.

"Stay here," said Ronja, petting his nose. "I don't want you getting hurt.

"And I don't want you getting hurt!" Nightwish protested. Ronja smiled sadly at him.

"I've been in plenty of fights before, I'll be fine," said Ronja. Nightwish still looked uncertain, but he just watched her go.

The two fighters stood only a metre or so apart, glaring at each other. Dunya's eyes were glowing, which freaked Ronja out, but she had only time to yelp and dart out of the way as a ball of fire was hurled at her feet.

Ronja retaliated with Soul Strike, hurling the ball of lightning at her opponent with all the force she could muster. But Dunya dodged it.

"Have some of this, then!" Ronja growled, and threw herself at Dunya. Clearly not expecting this, Dunya's eyes widened and her hands imprinted scorch marks into Ronja's skin as she tried to keep the other girl off of her. Ronja screamed at the pain but didn't back down, instead kicking and punching and scratching and biting any part of Dunya she could reach. At last, Dunya's eyes glowed brighter than before and a wave of scorching heat and physical force managed to push Ronja away from her. Ronja skidded back but whipped her wand out and began casting defensive spells at her opponent. Dunya dodged most of this barrage, but one spell hit her knee, causing it to buckle beneath her. She snarled and struggled back to her feet.

"You lamed me!" Dunya spat, and her very hair seemed to spark as her fists rained sparks of magic onto the ground. The hair on Ronja's arms and the nape of her neck rose as the scent of ozone saturated the air.

An instant later, Ronja felt as though she'd been struck by a thousand volts. She screamed as her body arced and spasmed on the ground, and all she could hear was Dunya's cold laughter.

"Ah, and there's the pain of physical forms," said Dunya, smirking down at the blackened form of her adversary. "You break so easily, and then you have to find a new one." Ronja glared up at her once her eyes focused again.

And then, while Dunya was busy gloating, Ronja lunged and sank her teeth into Dunya's ankle. Now Dunya screamed and began kicking, trying to get her off.

"Get off, you mutt!" Dunya screeched, flailing her foot around, but this only served to make Ronja's teeth slip and tear through more flesh. There were tears in Dunya's eyes, and Ronja smiled around the bloodied ankle in her mouth.

When Dunya fell and scrambled away, Ronja staggered to her feet, panting and wiping the blood away from her mouth. She still gripped her rune wand, and she aimed it at Dunya.

"Begone, demon," said Ronja, and this time, though it was Ronja speaking, she could feel the presence of that other behind her, smiling in approval at what she was doing. Just as she could see the way Dunya's shadow turned into a great, dark, tentacled horror-creature. Dunya glared at her, even as the Soul Strike hit her in the jaw and began to spread. She was a glittering crystal creature for one moment, her eyes still glowing bright red, and then she was gone. But the shadow remained, tentacles flailing angrily. The other behind Ronja tilted her chin up, a coy smile on her lips. As Ronja watched, the dark mass was surrounded by a bright light that only made the darkness seem darker. And then it rocketed downwards, the very ground beneath Ronja's feet rumbling and causing her to fall to the pink stones underneath.

Once the shaking had subsided, she heard hoofbeats. Nightwish cantered over to her, neighing in worry, and nuzzled the still form on the ground. In her sleep, Ronja tried to grab his head and cuddle it like it was a teddy.

"Wake up," Nightwish urged her, trying to rouse her by nuzzling her head. Nothing worked until he stuck his tongue in her ear. Now Ronja woke up, gagging and frantically trying to wipe it out of her ear.

"Gah, gross!" Ronja complained. "Alright, I'm gettin' up." She got to her feet on wobbly legs and made an attempt at mounting, but could only drape rather pathetically over the saddle like a sack of potatoes. "Onwards, Nightwish." Nightwish snorted, pleased that his rider was okay enough to joke, and walked slowly through the portal and out of Pandoria.


End file.
